Who Are the Long-Term Unemployed and What Happens to Them?

Even in good times, the long-term unemployed are on the margins of the labor market, with diminished job prospects and high labor force withdrawal rates. Even after finding another job, reemployment does not fully reset the clock for the long-term unemployed, who are frequently jobless again soon after they gain reemployment. Only 11 percent of those who were long-term unemployed in a given month returned to steady, full-time employment a year later.